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How everything began....
ABOUT MEMy name is Helmut and I was born in 1980 in Graz (Austria). Trains were my hobby since childhood. My 2nd hobby is travelling. During my trips I always combine those hobbies. I also like nature,...
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The 13.000 km train trip starts at Vienna
I wrote this travelogue primarily for some railway-related forums, so it contains many photos and information which might be boring for you, if you're not interested in railways that much. If you're...
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Leaving Moscow, leaving Europe
2008-09-09At his flat Alexander gave me our tickets to Pyongyang. This time it was not possible to make a combination with the Slovakian Citystar-Ticket, as the ticketsellers at MZA refused to issue...
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Train across Siberia
2008-09-12Unfortunately I have no photos of the 1st half of the day, as I lost them due to a mistake when copying files. However, as I have been to Barnaul some weeks ago during my trip to the solar...
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Boarding the direct train to Pyongyang
2008-09-15On that day we departed from Irkutsk for Pyongyang. The trip was in the direct sleeping car Moscow – Pyongyang, which runs twice monthly (11th and 25th at 21:25 from Moscow, 4 days later from...
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The Russian Far East
2008-09-17During the night the train went several 100 kilometers southwards and when we woke up we already noticed that it was not that cold and that the trees outside were still mostly green.At the...
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Approaching the Russian-Korean border....
2008-09-18The "Rossiya" stops in Ussuriysk from 21:27 till 21:45, that’s from 4:27 till 4:45 local time. The North Korean sleeping car is uncoupled here, whereas the main train continues to Vladivostok...
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Entering North Korea at Tumangan
Download the kmz-file for GoogleEarth to follow our route inside North Korea and see, where the photos were taken. Most of my photos from inside North Korea are now on GoogleEarth.DOWNLOAD HERE (~50...
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By train across North Korea (1/2)
Download the kmz-file for GoogleEarth to follow our route inside North Korea and see, where the photos were taken. Most of my photos from inside North Korea are now on GoogleEarth.DOWNLOAD HERE (~50...
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By train across North Korea (2/2)
Download the kmz-file for GoogleEarth to follow our route inside North Korea and see, where the photos were taken. Most of my photos from inside North Korea are now on GoogleEarth.DOWNLOAD HERE (~50...
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Pyongyang and Mt. Myohyang
2008-09-21Programm for that day:- breakfast- Kumsusan Memorial Palace (Kim Il Sung mausoleum)- Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery- Book&stamp shop- lunch at the Yanggakdo hotel- drive to Myohyang...
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"Arirang" games and more
2008-09-22The Hyangsan hotel:After breakfast we visited the Pohyon temple. It is said to be one of the few remaining practising Buddhist temples left in North Korea. However, I can’t guarantee whether...
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The Demilitarized Zone
2008-09-23Programm for today:- drive to Panmunjom at the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)- lunch at Kaesong- Koryo-museum at Keasong- drive back to Pyongyang- metro museum- Kim Il Sung's birthplace at...
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Pyongyang metro, Children's Palace, etc.
2008-09-24Program for the day:- Juche tower- Worker's Party monument- Three Revolutions exhibition- Metro ride- Kim-Il-Sung square- Lunch at the hotel- "Pueblo"- Kim-Il-Sung statue at Mansudae Hill-...
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Train trip to Beijing - back to the "outside world"
2008-09-25On that day we left Pyongyang. We met our guides after breakfast and they gave us our passports and our “sealed” mobile phones.In the passport we now also had some kind of registration stamp...
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Beijing, Tianjin and back home to Austria
2008-09-26In Beijing we had booked a hostel in advance via www.hostels.com. Originally we planned to stay one night in Beijing, then take a night train to Shanghai, stay another night there and then...
View ArticleBook your own Europe - Pyongyang train trip!!!
So, the train route via the border Khasan/Tumangan to Pyongyang is still not officially available for tourists. But there is a 2nd train from Moscow to Pyongyang. It goes via China.Or you can take a...
View ArticleTravelogue as pdf
For those, who want to save a copy of this travelogue on the personal computer, I have created a pdf-version of the travelogue.I've just printed the pages of this blog to pdf, so the layout is not...
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36 hours in North Korea without a guide...
Our train trip via Russia to North Korea - using an officially closed for foreigners route inside the "Hermit Kingdom"....NEW: A 26min film about the trip - with photos, videos and music:...
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